The Wall Street Journal published an interesting article today by Evan Ramstad entitled “Hype Builds for Smartphone, but It Isn’t an Apple Device.” Essentially, the whole piece is about how the commotion surrounding Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S IV handset is reaching iPhone-like proportions.
I didn’t agree at first — I’ve seen leaked photos of Android handsets before, and heard rumors and speculation. But as I started to dig in a little bit I realized that Ramstad was right, there’s something different this time around. A lot of people are talking about Samsung’s next flagship handset…
If you don’t want to take my word for it, feel free to do a Google Search for the term ‘Galaxy S IV,’ it returns nearly 25 million results (and if you think that’s a fluke, try ‘Galaxy S4.’ It’s the same). And throughout these results you’ll find mockups, concept videos, rumors, benchmark results, and more.
I didn’t understand what all of the buzz was about — I looked at the Galaxy S III the same way I’ve heard Android fans talk about the iPhone 5: “that looks a lot like the Galaxy S II, but with rounded corners and a larger screen.” But then I started reading some of the predictions for the S IV.
Courtesy of TechCrunch’s Galaxy S IV rumor roundup, I discovered that Samsung’s new handset is expected to feature a 5-inch+ (recent reports say 5.8) 440ppi display, 13MP camera, 2GB of RAM, Qi wireless charging, and — the big one — the new Exynos 5 Octa 8-core processor. Wow.
Sure, we’ve seen similar “crazy” predictions thrown about for previous iPhones ahead of their releases. But the thing is, for Samsung, they may not actually be that crazy. And that, I think, is the reason why there’s so much talk about the Korean handset-maker and its next smartphone.
Now, do I think that Samsung’s Galaxy S Line is on the iPhone’s level as far as popularity and brand recognition? No, not even close (for what it’s worth, a Google search for the term ‘iPhone 6’ returns more than 4 billion hits). But it sure looks like it has everyone’s attention, including ours.
Do you think the new Galaxy S handset is seeing iPhone-level hype?